ticular, although his dress was very thin,
was known to have passed the night on the snow, without a fire; and yet
he did not suffer the slightest inconvenience.

After having spent nearly five months in this dreary abode, the ice
broke up, the boats were repaired and once more got into the river; and
other preparations were made for the voyagers to pursue their course
towards the sources of the Missouri.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the 7th of April, the arrangements being all
completed, the party, consisting of thirty-two persons, once more
embarked. They now occupied six small canoes and two large pirogues. The
barge was sent down the river, to the United States, with presents of
natural curiosities, which had been collected, and with dispatches to
the president.

At some distance from Fort Mandan, the land, on each side of the
Missouri, after ascending the hills near the water, exhibits the
appearance of one fertile and unbroken plain, which extends as far as
the eye can reach, without a solitary tree or shrub, except in moist
situations, or in the steep declivities of hills. In some parts the
plains were on fire; for, every spring, as soon as the ice breaks up in
the river, these plains are set on fire by the Indians, for the purpose
of driving out and attacking the buffaloes, and other wild animals which
inhabit them. Beavers were here very abundant. A herd of antelopes, and
the track of a large white bear, were seen in the plain: geese and
swans were observed, in great numbers. The musquitoes now began to be
very troublesome.

Before the middle of April, the weather became so warm, that, in the
day-time, the men worked with no clothes on, except round their waist.
On the twelfth, the voyagers reached the mouth of the _Little Missouri_,
where they remained during the day, for the purpose of making celestial
observations. This river falls into the Missouri, on its south side, and
at the distance of sixteen hundred and ninety-three miles above its
confluence with the Mississippi. Its current is strong, and its width a
hundred and thirty-four yards; but its greatest depth is only two feet
and half. The adjacent country is hilly and irregular; and the soil is,
for the most part, a rich dark-coloured loam, intermixed with a small
proportion of sand.

On the thirteenth, the voyagers passed the remains of forty-three
temporary lodges, which were supposed to have belonged to the Assiniboin
Indians. The waters of man